Author Archive

Jacob met an angel by the river. They get into a fight and wrestle until dawn. Jacob walks away bruised but blessed. Not the average bible story! But it just happened to be the story behind our sermon this past Sunday, which can be found here. I like this story. It gives me hope. Because [...]

Jacob was tricked by Laban into marrying two wives.  Is there anything we can learn from such a story? Well it turned out to be the topic of our sermon last Sunday, which can be found here. At the heart of the story is the love that Jacob has for Rachel. It is an experience [...]

Whilst Jacob sleeps he dreams of a ladder reaching to the heavens.  A sermon reflecting on Jacobs experience can be found here. One of the phrases from the story that resonates with myself is Genesis 28: 16 when Jacob ponders “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” Finding God [...]

Jacob and Esau. The conflicting twin boys who came out of the womb fighting each other.  They became the subject of our Sunday sermon which you can find here. I admit to enjoying these Old Testament stories of family conflict and rivalry. They seem to ring so true to contemporary life and appear to be [...]

We began our summer sermon series on the life of Jacob by taking a look at one of the Patriarchs who came before him, namely Abraham, the great Father of Faith. A sermon reflecting on two of the folk he interacted with, namely Hagar and Ishmael, can be found here. The soap opera like account [...]

This past Sunday we welcomed Rev Mark Tammen to our pulpit. Mark is the newly appointed General Presbyter for the Presbytery of Long Island and spoke at our Adult Forum about the challenges of being part of the larger church, which in our Presbyterian situation consists of a local Presbytery, regional Synod and national General [...]

As well as being Trinity Sunday, our Church here in Baldwin squeezed in Sunday School singers, recognizing graduates, celebrating our Sunday School Teachers and may even have mentioned Fathers Day somewhere in the mix. The sermon for the day spoke about transitional lenses! Want to know more? The sermon can be found here. Meanwhile, getting [...]

The Church was given birth through the action of the Holy Spirit who energized the disciples as they waited together in worship and prayer. Our birthday sermon can be found here. The Baptist Preacher Charles Spurgeon once wrote “Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots [...]

This past Sunday was our Music Sunday. It was also a communion service. We were led to the table by numerous musical contributions varying from anthems featuring the chancel and bell choirs to piano pieces by some of the youngest children. It was truly a delight and a feast of many different sounds. My own [...]

In our cozy churches where sometimes the worst that happens is somebody reads the wrong bible passage or the choir are a little off-tune in the anthem we easily forget that the Church was built upon the experience of martyrdom. One of the first martyrs was Stephen, a deacon chosen by the apostles. A sermon [...]